Disc Players

SACD playback has been key to the dCS credo for the best part of two decades, beginning with the Sony-based Verdi transport in 2001 and most recently revisited in the single-chassis Vivaldi One [HFN Feb '18]. That is until the new Rossini CD/SACD transport was launched this year. We asked dCS CEO David Steven whether this lower cost solution was part of a new roadmap.

'The Rossini CD/SACD Transport is not so much pointing the way ahead for dCS as an affirmation of our commitment to our customer base and the silver disc format,' says Steven. 'When we launched the original Rossini range there was no SACD mechanism that met our spec, so dCS customers who wanted to migrate from Paganini and Scarlatti to Rossini hit a dead end.

'We have always seen ourselves as a DAC company first and foremost but we see the physical disc format having a long [commercial] tail'. Hence dCS continued looking for an SACD mech that met its requirements for use in the Rossini platform. 'We came across the D&M mechanism, tested it extensively and then set about building the Rossini SACD Transport' said Steven.

'The Vivaldi One uses Esoteric's VRDS-Neo mechanism, so we had to go back to scratch with the Rossini Transport as everything was new.' The end result is not only this Rossini SACD transport but a mkII DAC that offers network streaming, USB for direct computer connection, CD and SACD playback... and all with dCS's proprietary Ring DAC technology at its core.